The Many Sides of Peregrin Took
by Foodie
Summary: Pippin wasn't always as clumsy as he seems. He had a few adventures as a child that show he has a lot of courage and strength that he never knew he had.


The Many Sides of Peregrin Took – by Foodie

1399-1400 S.R.

Pippin 9-10

1.) While Pippin was growing to adulthood, he was mostly known for being a silly "fool of a took", but he wasn't always like that. These stories show traits that he never grew out of.

Peregrin Took didn't mind being the only boy in his family. All of his sisters were a lot of fun and he loved to play with them. His sisters loved taking care of him, so it was a perfect arrangement.

One day Pippin was helping the girls make a dress for Pervinca's birthday. It was yellow with ruffles, lace, ribbons, and bows. Pippin stood on a stool, wearing the dress, while Pearl and Pimpernel made markings and stuck it full of pins so they could make the proper adjustments. Pippin and Pervinca were almost the same size, for the most part.

Pippin looked down and admired his sisters' handiwork and said, "This yellow really brings out the blue in my eyes, doesn't it?"

Paladin, his father, walked into the room at just that moment, heard the comment, and looked at his son with a horrified look on his face. Peregrin, his son, his only boy, the future Thain, in a dress, colour-coordinating.

A few days later, Paladin caught Pippin coming out of Pervinca's room with one of her dolls. He thought Pippin was going to play with it and couldn't stand the thought of it. Pippin was actually going to go saw its arms and legs off and glue them back so its feet came out of her sleeves and her hands stuck out of her petticoat. Paladin would have been quite relieved to know this, but Pippin was afraid of getting into trouble and said nothing.

The next morning, Paladin took Pippin to a nearby farm to find him an animal to take care of. He thought it was a good idea to get him out of the clutches of his sisters for a while.

When they arrived, Paladin told his son he could have any animal he wanted, but that it would be solely his responsibility for its care. Paladin hoped that the caring for an animal would distract him from spending too much time with his sisters, and teach him a few lessons about responsibility in the process.

Pippin wandered the farm. He saw horses, pigs, cows, and goats. Paladin hoped he would pick one of those hearty animals. Pippin stopped when he came to the chicken coop. There were several eggs hatching. He watched with fascination as they cracked through their shells from the inside. As they finally emerged, they flopped around, with very little strength. They looked like they were sopping wet too. But after a while, they perked up and dried out and looked like little yellow furry balls of sunshine. "I want one of these, father! May I have one?" Pippin cried, his eyes sparkling with excitement, grinning from ear to ear.

Paladin really didn't want him to get one, but how could he say "no" to that face? "All right," he replied, patting his son on the head. Pippin chose the one he wanted and his father paid for it and then they left for home.

When they arrived, Pippin ran into the hole to show his family his new pet. They squealed when they saw it. Eglantine asked her son what he would name it. Pippin looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, "Dolly". Eglantine smiled in amusement at the name. Paladin just looked at his son in horror.

Pippin took Dolly to his room and made a little bed for her at the foot of his bed. Next he went to the kitchen, filled a small bowl with water, another with cornmeal and placed those by the bed.

He was excited with his new pet. It was something all his own, he didn't have to share it with any of his sisters. That night, he settled Dolly into her bed and made sure she was nice and warm before getting into his own bed.

Time passed and Dolly grew into a cute red hen that could always be seen running behind Pippin wherever he went. She occasionally slept in his bed on cold nights. Every morning, Pippin would clean out her bed and fill her food and water bowls. Then they would go outside and play. Dolly was a fast runner and liked to nip at Pippin's heels while he tried to outrun her.

One day, Tolman Cotton was passing through Tuckburough on his way to a friend's house. Everybody knew the Cotton boys were bullies, and Pippin was nervous when he found himself face to face with him alone. Tolman looked at Pippin, then at Dolly. Tolman reached down and grabbed Dolly. He held her out of Pippin's reach. "Hey Pipsqueak, what have we here? I should take this back to my house and eat it for dinner, what do you think?"

Pippin resisted the urge to cry. He would not let Tolman see him cry. He had to save Dolly! "Give her back!" he shouted, stomping his foot, and planting his hands on his hips.

"Why don't you make me?" Tolman smirked at Pippin.

With a strength unknown before to Pippin, he suddenly lunged at Tolman and knocked him backwards. Tolman let go of Dolly who flopped to the ground and began pecking at Tolman's feet. Tolman regained his footing, but Pippin held onto him. He held him in a tight headlock and jabbed his knees in his stomach at the same time.

Finally Tolman lost his footing and fell to the ground. Now Pippin began punching him. He got a couple of good swings and blackened Tolman's eye by the time Eglantine saw what was going on and broke up the fight. Tolman got up and ran away before he got into any more trouble.

Pippin was so angry he couldn't calm down, so Eglantine put him to work kneading bread, where he could punch out all his aggression with no harm done.

That evening, Paladin's heart soared as he heard the story from his wife. He wasn't as worried about his son after that.

2.) The following year, Pippin had realized that instead of playing with his sisters, it was much more fun to torment and annoy them. But they weren't always fun to be around. There were times when they yelled at Pippin for no good reason, or cried when he teased them. And all three of his sisters seemed to be like this at the same time, and it happened quite regularly. Even his mother was like that too. During these times, Pippin wished he and his father could go somewhere else until their moods improved. One time he asked his father why they were like this and he said it was women's business and none of theirs. It seemed the only good thing about these times was that there were usually more puddings lying around the kitchen for him to eat.

Thankfully though, it wasn't one of these times, or Pippin would have been worried. His parents had left the children home for a couple of days for a small holiday alone. He was excited, for he had the next two days carefully planned out. He had a lot to get done in a short amount of time.

At breakfast the next morning, Pearl tried to get her siblings to help clean the hole as a surprise for their parents. When nobody wanted to help, she got bossy and tried to make them help her. She thought she could at least make Pippin help, since he was the youngest and she was the oldest. When he refused, Pearl began to yell at him. This made Pippin angry, "You're not the parent!" He yelled back. "Besides, I'm busy today," with that, he marched out of the kitchen and outside.

He'd already prepared for his first major event of the day. It was a nice, sunny, warm day, just perfect for his plan. Pippin found a nice ant hill and sat down next to it. He pulled his father's reading spectacles out of his pocket and got busy.

The ants marched in a steady line into the ant hill. Pippin placed the spectacles over the line and let the sun do its work. One of the ants gave off a tiny sizzling sound and then collapsed. Pippin watched as the ants behind it walked over it or around it, paying it no heed. He giggled madly.

Next he went off to find more insects to fry. He found a spider, a caterpillar, and a potato bug. They took longer than the ant had to burn and Pippin lost interest after that.

He went back into the hole and ran around with Dolly for awhile. He chased her in and out of the rooms. She clucked and scampered about, molting feathers as she went. This only made Pearl angrier as she was trying to clean the hole and he was not helping.

At second breakfast, he got on all of his sister's nerves. He wouldn't sit still. He drummed on the table and hit the glasses with forks like he was a musician. He made strange sound effects with his mouth as only boys can and tapped his feet on the floor.

Pearl made him go back outside to play after that. Pippin walked around and found a most fascinating thing. A long, brown worm was crawling around the dirt in his mother's flower garden. It was the longest worm he'd ever seen. Every time he poked it with a stick, it scrunched itself up. Pippin picked the worm up and carried it back inside.

Pearl had recruited his sisters in the house cleaning, so Pippin went by unnoticed. He walked into Pimpernel's room and put the worm under her bed covers. He was quite amused over the thought of her seeing this.

Next, he went into Pervinca's room and found the doll his father had caught him with the year before. Now that his father was away, he could carry out his great idea. Taking the doll back to his room, he fished out a small saw he had stashed under his bed for just such purposes, and got to work. He took off all the doll's clothes, then proceeded to cut off its arms and legs. Then he figured, why stop there? He sawed off its head too. Then he took the body parts back to Pervinca's room and hid them in different parts of the room, except for the main body which he put back where he'd found it.

Pippin was quite hungry by then and went into the kitchen to find something to eat. He found one of Pearl's perfect plum pies cooling off in an open window. Those were his very favourite! It was still warm, but not too hot to pick up. He took the pie back to his room, along with a fork, and proceeded to eat the entire thing!

Pippin belched loudly when he was done. He was an expert belcher. He could say his name and the alphabet in belches. He was quite proud of this talent. Just then, he heard the angry voice of Pearl as she obviously discovered the missing pie. Pippin could hear loud footsteps coming towards his room, so he hid the pie tin and fork under his bed.

Pearl opened the door without knocking and started yelling at Pippin. He denied having even seen the pie let alone eating it. Since Pearl could not prove it, she couldn't really punish him for it. But she figured she could scare him into confessing.

Pearl left his room and hunted for Dolly, found her, and put her in her room for safe-keeping. Then she began to prepare dinner. Mother had left a chicken for a meal in the larder and Pearl trussed it and put it on the spit to cook over the fire.

By dinner time, it was perfectly cooked. Its meat was tender and juicy, and the skin was crispy and golden brown. She'd made other dishes as well and called her siblings into the kitchen to eat.

They ate their fill of all the delicious chicken and other things like mashed potatoes, dressing, and vegetables. Since there was no pie, they had to make due with the left-over pudding from the day before.

Pippin was happily stuffed when he began to look around for Dolly. He couldn't find her inside or out. He asked his sisters if they'd seen her. Pearl said she had a few hours ago. He asked her where and she told him "In the kitchen." "I had to make dinner, and mother forgot to leave us a chicken, so..." Her voice trailed off.

Pippin's eyes grew wide and he began to feel sick to his stomach. "You cooked Dolly?" he asked faintly.

"I figured I could eat your property since you ate mine," Pearl said, loving making her brother squirm.

"You ate my chicken because I ate your pie?" Pippin cried.

"Well, there's two things about that: one, we all ate the chicken, and two, you said you didn't eat the pie," she responded, having him right where she wanted him.

Pippin started to cry. This was too much. He'd eaten his own beloved pet AND confessed to eating the pie. In just that same amount of time, Pearl's motherly side kicked in and she knew this had gone too far. "Oh, Pip, I'm sorry, it was just a trick. Dolly's in my room. I just wanted to make you confess."

Pippin continued to cry, so hard that Pearl ran to her room and returned with Dolly and placed her in his arms. He finally began to calm down. Pearl felt so bad that she made a brand new plum pie for pudding that night.

That night, a well-fed Pippin sat in his nice warm bed with Dolly while listening for his sister's reactions to their rooms.

He heard Pervinca yell when she found her dismembered doll's body sitting on the shelf where it always sat. But she wasn't too angry; it wasn't one of her favourites. She kept those hidden away; she knew better.

He heard Pimpernel's scream as she discovered the gift he left for her in her bed. Her screaming continued and he got out of bed and went to her room. He knew she wouldn't touch in and picked it up and threw it out her window. Pimpernel was a good spirit and only yelled at him for a short time before throwing him out of her room.

The next day went much more smoothly with Pippin volunteering to help the girls clean the hole. Mother and father were very pleased at how nice and clean the hole was when they returned home that evening. The events of the weekend were kept a secret from their parents, and they never suspected a thing.

3.) Several months later, on one seemingly ordinary day, Pippin was at his friend Milo Proudfoot's house playing. Milo was an only child, but his mother, Rosa, was about to have a baby soon—very soon.

That afternoon, while the two boys played with wooden soldiers in Milo's room, Rosa realized that her baby was coming. She hadn't been feeling well all day and now she knew why. Anson, her husband, was up in Hobbiton on business and she was home alone with two ten-year old boys. Walking to Milo's room, she tried to stay calm in her pain. She was hoping to send Pippin off to get Marigold Chubb, the midwife and bring her back. But Milo panicked and ran out the door for Marigold, leaving Pippin behind with Rosa.

Pippin had seen plenty of animals have babies, and figured a hobbit probably wasn't that much different. He put his arm around Rosa's waist and helped her walk to her bedroom. He had to stop several times because of Rosa's pain. He felt her pain as well because during these times, Rosa would dig her fingers into his shoulder and groan loudly. Finally they made it and Pippin helped her into the bed. He ran around the hole and gathered supplies that he had seen adults gather for births he had attended, like scissors, string, blankets, towels, and boiling water.

When Pippin returned to the bedroom, he ran to Rosa and held her hand while she cried out in pain. Most people would have been scared during this time, but Pippin found it terribly exciting. It got even more exciting when Rosa told Pippin, "I don't think I can wait for Marigold, Pippin, this baby's coming now!"

"What should I do?" Wide-eyed Pippin asked.

"You're going to have to help me. I'll tell you what to do, but you have to stay calm. You're going to see things you're not used to and you can't panic. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Pippin replied, taking a deep breath.

"All right. You need to look under my skirt and tell me what you see."

Pippin looked traumatized at the idea of doing this, but the insistence in Rosa's voice caused him to obey. He pulled her skirt up over her knees and peeked at her through half-closed eyes. He felt the room spin and start to go black. "Ooh, that's disgusting, I think I'm going to be sick," he moaned, trying to keep his lunch safely in his stomach. He didn't know what he saw; hobbits looked very different from animals. He told Rosa this as calmly as possible. This didn't seem to help her out very much.

"Ok, you've seen how animals give birth; it's pretty much the same thing..." With that Rosa grimaced in pain, and started to push. She yelled out in great pain; Pippin, with his hands on her knees, cried out as well at the same time while he watched what was happening.

He could see something come out. Rosa pushed for a long time and finally what he assumed was the head was out. Rosa pushed again and Pippin held onto the baby's head, supporting it. After several more pushes, the neck, then a shoulder, and then the whole body popped out. It was a girl!

Pippin was breathless with excitement and took a moment to calm himself down. He took a deep breath and almost choked on the thick iron smell that had filled the room from all the blood. Rosa was exhausted and out of breath as well, so Pippin took the baby to a nearby table where all the supplies were. He tied off the cord in two spots with string and cut in between them, setting her free. Then he cleaned her gently and slapped her bottom which made her cry. Her lungs filled with air and she screamed with all her might. It was a beautiful sound. He carefully wrapped her in a blanket and brought her back to Rosa.

It was at this moment that Milo and Marigold arrived to see a perfect, adorable, chubby girl resting with her mother. Marigold was shocked that Pippin had taken care of this by himself and lavished him with praise. Pippin cleaned himself up as best he could and Marigold took care of Rosa and the baby.

Pippin was quite the hometown hero, with the news of his heroism reaching all the way from Hobbiton to Buckland. Everybody was quite proud of him. He was quite proud of himself as well.


End file.
